Word Origin & History

toy c.1300, "amorous playing, sport," later "piece of fun or entertainment" (c.1500), "thing of little value, trifle" (1530), and "thing for a child to play with" (1586). Of uncertain origin, and there may be more than one word here. Cf. M.Du. toy, Du. tuig "tools, apparatus, stuff, trash," in speeltuig "play-toy, plaything;" Ger. Zeug "stuff, matter, tools," Spielzeug "plaything, toy;" Dan. tøi, Swed. tyg "stuff, gear." The verb is first attested 1529, from the noun."If he be merie and toy with any,

Example Sentences for toy

He was sitting on the floor with our boy gravely intent on a toy circus.

Even this toy of a train brings us, in thirty minutes, to Beirut.

You were but a lad learning to fly your first toy helics when that happened.

We learn first to play with it academically, as the magnet was once a toy.

He wrapped the toy vane in a piece of paper and handed it to his small patron.

He took up one of these and swung it round him like a toy, and the men fell on every side.

His voice was squeaky and petulant, like that of a child who is suddenly forbidden a toy.

When Philip was three, he loved playing with his toy airplane.

What's a toy to the health and happy future of these helpless little folk?

It is astonishing to see the reverence with which this toy is regarded.